THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 2 - HERO OR MENACE SYSTEM

​In between story missions in The Amazing Spider-Man 2, the game gives the player various side missions to complete. One type is called a Heroic Event. Heroic events include activities such as rescuing civilians and stopping crimes that pop up around the player’s position. There are only a handful of activities you can do, and you will be constantly repeating them thanks to the implementation of the ‘Hero or Menace System’.

In-game screenshot (free roam)

​The Hero/Menace system’s function is an attempt to give players a meaningful sandbox to play in that takes notice of the players actions and provides consequences to match. This system is shown as a long thin bar just above the map UI in game. Completing events will improve Spider-Man’s reputation and fills up the heroic meter. They will also provide bonuses to capabilities of your currently worn suit. Once you do these events a couple of dozen times, it gets tiresome, and all of them have unskippable cutscenes as well.

Hero/Menace System UI (top bar)

Forcefield blocking the way (top right)

Heroic events are on a timer, and when flashing red on the map the player must get there quick before the crime happens. If they do not, the player’s heroic reputation will decrease, and a Task Force starts to hunt down Spider-Man in the game world. Ignore enough events and tougher enemies are sent and forcefields blocking your web swinging trajectory are used.

​As you progress through the story, far more crimes than you can ever stop start appearing in the game world and you will lose reputation whether you intended to or not. The Hero/Menace system directs the player to do good in the game but nudges them to doing the same tasks repeatedly.

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​The goal of the system redesign is to make it less of a nuisance to the player. The heroic meter ‘fill up’ will stay but will be slowed down when losing heroic points. Gaining points will be easier, just so we limit the number of times the player does these repetitive tasks while still keeping them in game. It will be harder to change people’s views, just like it is for Spider-Man in his comic books and movies.
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New events will be added. A kid could let go of a balloon and start to cry, Spider-Man can retrieve and return it to the kid. A mugger might steal a purse. You will gain more heroic points if you successfully save people from a burning building than say, a kid’s balloon.

News report plays after every successful completion of a Heroic Event

The player does not need an unskippable cutscene animation to a burning building activity every single time when the player already made the conscious decision to get there. I would also remove the news report pop-ups. The system already responds to your choices, we do not need another confirmation.

Heroic act side mission.

​In the game’s story, Kingpin gives the task force Oscorp technology. When you defeat Kingpin, that defeat should reflect in the game world, and the futuristic tech used by the force should now be removed. This makes the system directly correlate to the story and makes the player feel like the world is responding to their actions.

​NPCs in the game should respond to Spider-Man’s reputation. Pedestrians should yell out either positive or negative lines at you. Thugs should initially like you if your classified as a menace until you punch them in the face. There should be newsstands with Daily Bugle headlines that change with your current reputation. The suit bonuses and task force removal will still stand if you are a hero, but now you will gain extra XP for your suit levels.

Task Force enemy on glider

Redesigned system will let pedestrians tell you how they really feel about you!

​These changes will not constantly force the player to complete repetitive side missions, but when doing so, the player does not have to sit through pointless cutscenes. The annoyance of constantly being shot at by the task force will be limited, you will be able to web swing more freely, and the addition of environmental story telling would let the player know how New Yorkers currently view The Amazing Spider-Man.